Pre-buy after Annual

Hi Doug. Great question. I'm a new owner and went through a similar
experience. We bought an Arrow that had literally come out of annual a
couple of days before we showed up to take a look (and hopefully close
the deal and fly home...which we wound up doing). I poked around for
info. on the shop that had been doing the maintenance and received
positive reports (thanks again Blanche). We also asked tons of
questions to the owner and to the A&P that had been maintaining the
plane. We went through AOPA for the title search and copies of past
paperwork. Everything looked fine so we put down a deposit and headed
to Denver. I spend a couple hours with the A&P reviewing the logs and
asking more questions. I also had a chance to fly the plane as well.
Reviewing the logs, we just kept finding more information that the plane
had been well maintained. The A&P let me do whatever I wanted in terms
of poking around the plane.

The next day, one partner along with an instructor showed up. They had
a look at the plane and we closed the deal then flew home. So, our
pre-buy inspection was very limited. We could have (and many would say
"should have") had a different shop do some form of pre-buy inspection.
Given how the entire deal was progressing and our overall timeframe,
we opted not to take the plane to another shop. A definite risk but one
that we were comfortable with given all of the information we had.

Specifically on your situation, check into whether or not Piper service
bulletin 1006 has been performed. This is the one where they pull the
tanks and check for corrosion on the wing spar caps. Many Piper owners
advised me this is a "must have". If it has not been performed, I feel
it is worth spending the money to do as part of a pre-buy inspection.

Good luck with the purchase process. Be prepared to walk away if
something doesn't feel right. We had to walk away from two deals before
we found our Arrow. Not fun, time consuming, etc...but worth it in the end.


--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL-IA Student
Arrow N2104T

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

Jack Allison wrote:

Specifically on your situation, check into whether or not Piper
service
bulletin 1006 has been performed. This is the one where they pull
the
tanks and check for corrosion on the wing spar caps. Many Piper
owners
advised me this is a "must have". If it has not been performed, I
feel
it is worth spending the money to do as part of a pre-buy inspection.


I'll second Jack's advice on this one. The only way to detect
corrosion in that area is to perform SB #1006. That area is not
normally inspected as part of an annual inspection. If it hasn't been
performed, the long term condition of the plane is a question mark. It
could be fine (as in most cases), or it could have some intergranular
corrosion of the spar which will render your wings basically useless.

Inspecting for corrosion is key to the long term investment prospects
of an airplane. On a Cherokee group that I frequent, one owner is
currently disassembling his recently bought plane and selling the
pieces. His first annual uncovered massive corrosion under the front
floorboards that would not have been economically feasable to repair.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

On 23-May-2005, " wrote:

I'll second Jack's advice on this one. The only way to detect
corrosion in that area is to perform SB #1006. That area is not
normally inspected as part of an annual inspection. If it hasn't been
performed, the long term condition of the plane is a question mark. It
could be fine (as in most cases), or it could have some intergranular
corrosion of the spar which will render your wings basically useless.


Yes indeed, SB 1006 is a "must do" as far as I'm concerned. If I was
considering purchase of an older PA-28 I would check the logs to verify
compliance. If it hadn't yet been done, I would make successful compliance
part of any purchase agreement. An A&P familiar with the SB, and that
should be any A&P familiar with PA-28s, should be able to pull off the
inspection in a few hours. Most of the work entails removal and replacement
of the many screws holding the tanks in place, and that part can be done by
anybody.

BTW, when SB 106 is done the fuel lines behind the tanks should be routinely
replaced, as should the fuel gauge senders if they are giving any problems.
None of that is mentioned in the SB, but if the lines are more than 10 years
old it would be dumb not to take advantage of having the tanks off as an
opportunity to replace them. The lines themselves don't cost that much.

How to deal with the inspection as part of a purchase deal? As a buyer, I
would offer this: If the inspection shows either no corrosion or minor,
easily corrected corrosion, I buy the plane at the agreed price and pay for
the inspection (and fuel line replacements). If major corrosion is found
(requiring more than, say, $200 to correct) then the deal is off and I owe
nothing.

--
-Elliott Drucker